Spade & Spoon: Localizing the Way Westerners Eat
Chicago on the Cusp of Eating Local
By Kisha Lewellyn Schlegel, 8-29-07
Famous for hot dogs and deep dish pizza more akin to lasagna than the flat bread stuff of New York, the city of Chicago is considering some new rules for Illinois’ eaters.
According to the Chicago Tribune’s Bill Daley, the city’s Department of Planning and Development has developed a campaign called ”Chicago: Eat Local Live Healthy,” to create “a climate where the production and distribution of locally grown, healthy food is available, accessible and affordable to residents year-round.” The city of Chicago boasts three times the population of the entire state of Montana so these rules have the possibility of exponentially expanding local food markets.
In a state that currently imports 90 percent of its food, Illinois also recently passed the Food, Farms and Jobs Act, which supports the formation of an Illinois-based food system. The law basically states that Illinois supports farmer training and development, consumer access to “fresh and affordable” Illinois-grown food, and the creation of new food and agriculture-related business.
How either the state or city initiative will be funded is unclear and while verbal support and a pat on the back will certainly create a cache of rhetorical goodwill, the implementation and effects of the program remain to be seen.
As I rode the train out of Chicago on Sunday, the metropolis flattened into fields of cabbage and corn. Perhaps the next time I return to the Second City with its endless culinary delights, that cabbage will end up as the coleslaw I relish on a locally raised hot dog while the Cubs bat through the lineup.
[End of article]It's nice to read a story on the growing trend of purchasing locally grown foods as opposed to normal grocery store fare. I would have liked a little more substance in the article-who is pushing the initiative? How to support it? How to support that person?
Another point, and this is a pet peeve of mine, is the pervasive misuse of the word 'healthy'. The proper word to use in the article would have been 'healthful'. After all, one can be healthy, have healthy animals, and grow healthy plants-that all stay healthy while they're still alive. Food sources are no longer healthy after they're harvested and our society generally frowns upon the eating of living animals.
By eating healthful things we remain healthy. Yeah, it's a semantic nit, but we all have our foibles
Do like DigitalUnderground and Doowhatchlike on word choice:
From Bartleby:
http://www.bartleby.com/64/C003/0156.html
Some people like to maintain a distinction between healthy and healthful. Healthy, they say, should be used to mean “possessing good health,” and only healthful should mean “conducive to good health.” People who hold this view are swimming against the tide of history, for healthy has been used to mean “healthful” since the 16th century. You can find the “healthful” use of healthy in the works of many distinguished writers, with this example from John Locke being typical: “Gardening … and working in wood, are fit and healthy recreations for a man of study or business.” Therefore, both healthy and healthful are correct in these contexts: a healthy climate, a healthful climate; a healthful diet, a healthy diet.